Race Against Time
by Stargazer79
Summary: A dream I had where I was Rapunzel. It's a bit random and impossible.


Rapunzel pushed through the crowd of Chuck E. Cheese's, looking for her mother. The place was going to close soon and she couldn't seem to find her mom anywhere.

As she passed through the shopping section, she stopped to admire the baby Merida dolls she couldn't buy. Then she saw her mother pushing a cart away from her up ahead.

"Mother!" Rapunzel called, tripping over herself as she tried to catch up. "It's almost closing time! We have to go! Mother!" She was ignored.

Rapunzel stopped and thought, _if we can't buy anything, she wouldn't be pushing a cart. _Then she noticed that the woman she thought was her mother was wearing something entirely different. She only had similar black hair.

Rapunzel turned and hurried off toward the arcade section. There was only ten minutes until closing. She wasn't sure why she felt she had to hurry. They wouldn't lock her in if she didn't leave in time, would they? Would her mother leave without her? She didn't think so.

The arcade section was almost deserted since everyone was on their way out. Rapunzel went downstairs to the basement level.

It was very dark down there, except for one light shining over a game. A family with lots of kids was playing it. Rapunzel went over to them.

"Don't you know Chuck E. Cheese's is closing soon?" she asked.

"We'll leave right when they're done this game," the mom said.

The kids were all jumping around on a mat, and on the screen it looked like they were racing in cars. Then the word winner began flashing in big, bright red letters, and a bunch of gumballs poured out of a slot on the game.

Rapunzel knelt down in front of them and noticed that all of them were orange except two. The blue one rolled underneath the game when the kids attacked the gumballs, trying to scoop them all up at once.

"Can I have one?" Rapunzel asked.

"Just one," a boy told her.

She took the only red one. She almost took an orange one for her mother, but it made her feel like a thief, so she didn't. Her mother didn't like the orange ones anyway.

Then something else fell out of the slot. One of the kids picked it up, beaming. It was one of the baby Merida dolls that Rapunzel wanted.

She stood up and said, "I didn't know you could win that from the games."

"Only from this one," said one of the kids.

Then her mother, Gothel, came practically flying down the stairs. "Rapunzel! There you are! I've been looking all over for you," she said. "It's almost closing time."

"Look what they won from this game!" Rapunzel said, pointing to the family's prize.

"From this game? Then I'm gonna get you one," Gothel said, pressing the start button.

"But mother, we have to go now," Rapunzel told her. Gothel didn't answer, intent on the racing game. It didn't look like she was doing very good. "I'll go wait upstairs then."

Rapunzel went upstairs and nearly ran into a girl wearing lots of jewelry and high heels. Then a man in a top hat came up to them. He was carrying a box. Inside was a baby Merida doll.

"Hello, girls. We had one more of these left in the back room and wanted to get rid of it. Would you like it?" he said.

"Yes!" Rapunzel exclaimed, and continued before the other girl could get a word out. "I've always wanted one, but I can never..." She broke off when the man handed her the box.

"Here you go," he said, then walked away.

"Thank you!" she called after him. The girl was glaring at her, so Rapunzel ran back down to the dark basement.

"Mother! Look, look!" She held the box up and shook it around in Gothel's face. "Someone gave it to me."

"Good, now we can go. It's only one minute to closing time." Gothel grabbed Rapunzel's arm and pulled her to the staircase. The single light in the basement went out and Gothel quickened her pace. Rapunzel struggled to stay on her feet.

Then she remembered something. "Oh, look! I got some gum too!" she said, holding it up.

"Now's not the time, Rapunzel!" Gothel replied, yanking her up the stairs, causing Rapunzel to trip and fall onto the last step. She lost her grip on the gumball and dropped it over the side. She never heard it land.

Gothel whirled around and looked down at her. "Rapunzel! We will never get out in time if you keep dragging your feet!"

Rapunzel almost said how this was her mother's fault for playing that game, but she decided not to make things worse. Then the ground disappeared from under her and she screamed as she fell.

Luckily, Gothel was still holding her wrist and managed to pull her up into her own arms. She continued toward the door, carrying Rapunzel.

Behind them, a complete blackness was consuming the whole place. "What will happen if we don't get out in time?" Rapunzel asked.

"Then we'll never get out," Gothel told her, out of breath.

They were almost out when the door slammed closed in front of them. "We're too late," Gothel said.

The blackness crept in around them until they were just standing on a small square of color. Then even that disappeared and they fell down into the dark nothingness.


End file.
